Arts Writer
THE Ardmore Ceramic Art Cape Town exhibition, hosted annually at the Cellars-Hohenort Hotel in February, will feast on the visual wealth of the Kalahari for its inspiration.
Standing as a testament to the way in which life is able to adapt and thrive in the harshness of such extreme conditions, the Kalahari offered the Ardmore artists a thought-provoking fresh landscape and environment to work with.
“The 2016 Kalahari Cats exhibition,” says Ardmore founder, Fée Halsted, “has been the most challenging and exciting exhibition for the Ardmore team to ever work on and I think that this collection includes some of our finest works ever produced.”
Ardmore ceramic art is associated with an abundance of colour, lavish plants with galloping exotic spotted and striped wild animals as subject matter. The usual animals like zebra, leopard, giraffe, elephant and crocodiles have been exchanged with meerkat, badger, aardvark, ostrich, bat-eared fox, cheetah and black desert rhino, and other interesting critters also make an appearance.
“This new wilderness is a unique landscape that heavily contrasts with anything else that our artists have worked on before,” Halsted explains. “This is the first time they have had to use their expressive qualities to convey the stark and textured Kalahari, and they have responded to the plethora of Kalahari life with a new awakening and interest.”
Betty Ntshingila, known as the bird lady of Ardmore, has been working with raptors as subject matter for the first time, as well as lilac-breasted rollers, scarlet-breasted shrike, korhaan and hornbills. Her social weaver-nest-like vases are exciting works that Ardmore is looking forward to showcasing to their collectors at the exhibition.
Halsted has also been working with Teboho Ndlovu, a talented young sculptor from Lesotho. His badger dish narratively illustrates the story of a honey guide leading a badger to a hive. Ardmore artists love storytelling and Ndlovu was enthralled by this subject. He hand-coiled a large Leopard Monkey Hoopoe Bowl, depicting a playful chase between a leopard, monkey and hoopoe bird. He filled the vacant spaces with protea flowers and painting master Mandla Ngwenga has added his talent to create a work fit for a stately home or art connoisseur.
The exhibition offers wonderful opportunities for aspirant collectors. It will be open from 9am to 5pm from Friday to Sunday. Halsted and the artists will also host two presentations on Friday and Sunday 10.30am to 11.30am, giving guests the chance to engage with some of Ardmore’s finest sculptors and painters.
l Presentation booking essential: www.ardmoreceramics.co.za, 082 389 1395, [email protected]